anokosa wrote:erm, more than likely, they were dying from the curse of the soul-eater. the soul-eater puts people into situations where the die, so it gets a soul. anyone else agree?
I have to agree with you there. The soul eater twists fate a little bit to make those who are close to the protagonist get in dangerous situations so that it can eat their souls. Most true runes are subtly manipulative like this. They really do have a certain level of intelligence.
We don't know that the sou leater killed Aldo. All we know is that Aldo misteriously disappeared after heading off with Ted at the end of Suikoden IV. It says so in Ted and Aldo's bios.
In the case of the Soul Eater, twisting fate should mean :
- warn the imperials about Odessa's hideout
- put a child in danger in the hideout
- put Gremio in the party at Soniere
- have Milich use the man-eating spores
- have Teo fight a duel against his own son
- have Windy take Ted as hostage
I think that's a little too much for a rune to plot similiar things. After all, the rune has all the eternity to take souls, so I think I'll stick with the idea of the Soul Eater being idle.
You think everyone Tir loved died, starting right after he got the soul eater, by co-incidence?
It's a true rune, involved in the creation of the world. It's a major thing. True runes do not sit idle unless they're not wielded by a bearer (and even then they sort of "plot" when to resurface).
First of all "fate" is a huge theme in Suikoden I. It's in the opening credits and Leknaat talks about it a fair bit. The Soul Eater twists fate, as most true runes do.
The soul eater's curse is that it makes the friends and family of the bearer become in danger. Ted and Tir both know this and become very depressed at times because of it. Tir ran away from Gregminster to go fishing becuase of it. That's why Ted doesn't want to make friend with anyone. It's not that he's worried that "if they get hurt it'll eat their soul" he's worried that it'll put them in a dangerous situation. Which it does to Aldo as soon as they become close. . . what a co-incidence. . .
Airgil wrote:Cleo is still alive and she hasn't been put in danger. I like the "if they get hurt it'll eat their soul" more.
Cleo was more of a servant, no? He also seemed very aggressive, if you will, in the novel. It dousn't really matter. Developpement wise it would be impossible to kill literally EVERYONE who's close to Tir. Plot Wise, one could assume that the Soul Eater takes the live of those that are VERY close to Tir and/or have the potential of becoming very close to Tir( Like Odessa maybe). Cleo would not be that close to Tir as protecting Tir was more of a job. Sure they were close but they can't kill everyone. But thats just me. But its a theory that I'l stick to.
EDIT: it seems I confused myself so don't be surprised if you don't get confused by the above.
Also, the soul eater was eatting souls left right and centre, it didn't really have time to kill of Cleo too. That's why Tir ran away at the end so that no one else could be killed. If he had stayed behind in Gregminster and was very close with Cleo (although it's a good point that he wasn't as close with Cleo as with Greimo) it would have killed her off too.
Oddessa was getting very close to Tir, I think that conversation they had in the Inn at night (when they were delivering the blue prints) sealed her fate.
If as you say the soul eater is passive and merely eats souls then why are the bearers always afraid of becoming close to people? As I said Ted wouldn't make friends and Tir ran away. Now that Tir is out of a war situation (Gregminster calmed down after the Gate Rune War) then he wouldn't have to worry about it eatting people's souls because no one would die suddenly in war. He could just stay away when they were getting sick.
i stick by my theory. think about it. In the opening of the game, it asks if fate is unchangable, and really, it is by the creators. true runes manipulate peoples fate, and with the soul-eater, its to gain power. wiht the RoB its to make war. with the blue moon, its to feed.
Oppenheimer wrote:
anokosa wrote:erm, more than likely, they were dying from the curse of the soul-eater. the soul-eater puts people into situations where the die, so it gets a soul. anyone else agree?
I have to agree with you there. The soul eater twists fate a little bit to make those who are close to the protagonist get in dangerous situations so that it can eat their souls. Most true runes are subtly manipulative like this. They really do have a certain level of intelligence.
There have been some interesting speculations in this thread that I never considered and find very intriguing.
Firstly the Ted and Aldo theory. Personally I believe that the Soul Eater did kill Aldo. Ted would never do such a thing as someone in this thread has pointed out since it's not in his character. I don't think Aldo is gay either. I agree with other people that he was lonely and saw a kindred spirit in Ted but when their bond of friendship did grow that's when the Soul Eater striked.
The one thing that is interesting is the Soul Eater itself as like a lot of the characters we do not know much about it. We know that it takes the souls of the people closest to the bearer. This is proven by Odessa, Teo, Ted and Gremio.
The one thing I am curious about though concerns the second game. I was not able to get Tir and Gremio in my SII save data since it was incompatible and as such have not played the part where you can save the boy. My question is since Gremio, I am guessing, is still obviously very close to Tir then why did the Soul Eater not try to take his soul again? Were there any reasons or explanations given as to why this did not happen?
I'm pretty sure that the "Soul Eater" is just a nickname given to the "Rune of Life & Death". It doesn't "take" or "eat" souls literally. What it does supposedly do is bring bad fortune to those close to the bearer, i.e. the case of Gremio. It's not called the Soul Eater because it "eats souls", it's merely a nickname to describe how it chips away at the bearer's being by manipulating circumstances in such a way as to bring bad fortune to the bearer.
dksu wrote:It's not called the Soul Eater because it "eats souls", it's merely a nickname to describe how it chips away at the bearer's being by manipulating circumstances in such a way as to bring bad fortune to the bearer.
That's hard to say. It almost seems as if when a person who is close to the bearer dies the soul eater gets more powerful. It grants its bearer another tier of spells. It seemed to me this was because it absorbed the person's soul and gained power from the sustenance.
Also, considering the Rune of Punishment absorbed the souls of its past bearers (although it didn't necessarily gain power from this), then it isn't so much of a great leap for the Soul Eater to also absorb certain souls from the close to its bearer.
Ice has formed and there's snow between the tracks/ And I have seen the surface tear and I can't look back/ And cool low sun has blinded you for days from horizon to horizon can I dream this all away
I wonder who the soul eater might have devoured more than Aldo when Ted wore it. In S1 he uses his third level spell Hell against the Queen Ant. If he gains one set of spells for each devoured soul, he must have devoured at least 3 people. Though in S4 he has all four spells.
Nozomi_Tsuji wrote:I wonder who the soul eater might have devoured more than Aldo when Ted wore it. In S1 he uses his third level spell Hell against the Queen Ant. If he gains one set of spells for each devoured soul, he must have devoured at least 3 people. Though in S4 he has all four spells.
I think the "gaining a level for each devoured soul" thing was mostly for gameplay purposes in S1. I don't think there's any real set number, though by the time Ted got the Soul Eater, it was having one heck of a field day. On Seek Valley, he mentions that the Soul Eater "stole the souls of everyone he knew" on the day Windy attacked his village, and that it steals the souls of the ones closest to its master. If that village was pretty secluded, the villagers must've all known each other pretty well, and so I'd assume the SE got its fill to eat... no pun intended.
yay!!!
